Tech Support
by Princess Pinky
Summary: When Claudia learns that teleportation might be the cause of the redwoods in Eureka, she has a very different reaction from the one that Fargo expected.


**A/N:** For any non-_Warehouse 13 _fans, Joshua and Rheticus's Compass are from season one and when this episode aired, I was expecting Claudia's reaction to the possible explanation of teleportation to be completely different, given her WH13 background. So for this challenge, I wrote this AU scene.

_**Tech Support**_

"_Teleportation?"_

Fargo was keenly aware of the sudden demeanor in Claudia's voice. In all the time he'd known her - and granted, it wasn't long - he'd never once heard that brand of vulnerability. All at once, he felt the bones in his feet lock up and his pace fell behind Carter's.

"Claudia?" Fargo asked gently, as he craned his neck to look at her. He noted her statuesque posture, which was both eloquent and unnerving. A thousand different questions bubbled at the back of his throat, but he knew he needed the ones that both asked and yet refrained from prying. "Teleportation: does that mean something to you?"

Claudia pressed her hand to the wall, but remained staring at the floor. The posture made her look as though she'd just finished a hike and was leaning on the nearest thing as she paused to catch her breath. "You could say that," she replied, with an uncharacteristically hushed tone.

From his peripheral, Fargo could tell that Carter had just realized he'd been walking and talking by himself, but he ignored the sheriff as he turned back in his and Claudia's direction. "Do you know something that could help?" he probed. The anxiety of the situation, coupled with the redwood sized ruin of his day, and most recently the flip-switch change of Claudia's demeanor had him naturally on the brink and aching to burst out with a sarcastic quip or demand information, but his better judgment retained dominance.

"Is something wrong back here?" Carter asked. He paused in front of Fargo and folded his arms. The irritation radiating off of him quickly began to thicken the air.

"Are you familiar with Georg Joachim Rheticus?" Claudia finally lifted her head.

"He was a mathematician, wasn't he?" Carter answered before Fargo had a chance to open his mouth. His eyebrows began to stitch in confusion. "But what does that have to do with-"

"He was much more than just a mathematician," Fargo interrupted. "He was Copernicus's only student and is known for his groundbreaking work with trigonometric tables."

"And a cartographer," Claudia added with a solemn nod. "During his lifetime he created a compass, which he inscribed with specific instructions to perform teleportation. "

"And you think that could be the cause of the redwoods' appearance?"

"I don't know," Claudia admitted. "The compass should be in The Warehouse. Not that that hasn't stopped certain parties from getting to things before, but with MacPherson gone, that seems highly unlikely."

"MacPherson?"

"Old Warehouse agent; bad guy; _long_ story."

Carter bristled at Claudia's dismissal. "Well if he's behind this-"

"I'll talk to Artie," she cut in. Immediately, she produced a rectangular metal box that she called a Farnsworth from her back pocket. "Just because Rheticus created the compass doesn't mean it is the compass." She started to pull back the metal lid on the Farnworth as she mumbled, "Though this is a pretty big coincidence that I should show up and freaky teleportation starts up." As she waited for Artie's face to appear on screen she added, "And Eureka is proof enough that science has advanced a lot since good ol' Rhet's days. For all we know, someone could just be using his ideas somehow. Or had their own Eureka moment."

As Artie's face appeared in the sepia toned screen and Claudia stepped away to talk to him about the compass, Fargo slid seamlessly into the spot she'd just vacated. He could tell by the sheriff's unhinged jaw line that he'd been ready with a retort. "I'm sure there was no pun intended," he replied with a forced smile, in a veiled attempt to lighten the immediate atmosphere.

"What's up with her?" Carter questioned as he peered over Fargo's shoulder, at back of Claudia's dark red bob. "She was all smirks and sass two minutes ago."

"I don't know," Fargo admitted, unable to keep the concern out of his voice. He reached to his black rimmed glasses and pinched the left right corner and wiggled it to readjust them on the bridge of his nose, effectively pushing them as far into his face as they'd go. Then he dropped his right hand into the palm of his left and began to rub them together, as if he was polishing a shoe. The skin on skin friction made a hissing noise that somehow seemed to intensify the hushed tones Claudia was using as she spoke to her boss from her Farnsworth.

"Do you really think this could have something to do with an artifact?"

"Probably not," Fargo admitted. "I mean, I know that artifacts exist all over the world, but artifacts really aren't our world. I mean…if you know what I mean. But-"

Carter began to nod. "But this is clearly something important to Claudia."

"Yeah." Fargo squirmed under Carter's gaze, yet somehow, he still felt that the sheriff was finally _getting_ the situation.

"You really like her, don't you?" Carter asked intuitively. He still had the corner of his eye on Claudia, but was now holding a look with Fargo.

"Well, she's…she's _Claudia Donovan_."

Carter placed his hand on Fargo's shoulder and gave it a firm pat. "Okay," he relented. "You do what you have to do with her. But going by Eureka standards, what do you think this could be?"

Fargo looked down at his clipboard. "Well, teleportation research has been banned since the Stockholm Treaty. Well, sort of-technically."

Carter placed his hands on his hips. "Because 'sort of-technically' really stops people from doing what they want."

Fargo drew his finger down the clipboard. "Wait a minute. Wheeler! Dr. Lisa Wheeler; particle physics! She's the head of our Quantum Particle Entanglement Program."

"Quantum Particle Entanglement?"

"Fancy word for teleportation," Claudia announced from behind Fargo.

Fargo jumped and turned to find his nose a few mere centimeters from Claudia's. He could feel her breath on his lips and he felt himself aching to linger there, but just as the thought registered to him, she moved around to stand at his side. He began to nod like the bobble head doll of himself that was back in his office, in a box he planned to give Claudia before she had to go back to South Dakota. "She's right."

"Artie says he'll check up on the compass. Until then, what leads do you want to follow up on here?"

Carter twisted his head between the pair for a few moments. "You know what, why don't I go check up on Dr. Wheeler and you guys can bounce ideas off of each other here?" he suggested, with a particularly long look at Fargo.

Claudia attempted to follow Carter, but Fargo instinctively thrust out his hand and grabbed hers. He felt her hand reflexively curl in his, then loosen as Carter disappeared into the distance.

"Doug?" Claudia questioned as she lifted her hand, which Fargo was still attached to, and narrowed her eyes.

"Come here." He tugged her down the hall and into an empty lab room before she could protest. "Look, I don't mean to pry," he admitted guiltily, "but I know something's not right here and I can't figure it out and I _hate_ that. Claudia, are you okay? Because you don't look okay and that-" He stopped abruptly as he realized her hand was shaking beneath his, which he had never released all the way down the hall. "-_really_ worries me."

Claudia suddenly pulled her hand away and crossed her arms, hiding her hands under her armpits. She looked down at her chest. "I'm sorry," she replied with a shaky voice. "I know you tried really hard to make this whole trip incredible and I know I wished for something freaky and I'm just a big jinx."

"Don't you dare say that!" Fargo threatened. "This is _not _your fault! If anything, it's mine. Everything I try to do-"

"Somehow gets screwed up?"

"Yeah."

She smiled a bit, in spite of herself. "Yeah, me too."

"So what is it?" Fargo prodded. "What's got you upset?" His hand found its way to her arm and he gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Come on," he spoke gently. "I know we haven't known each other that long, but you can trust me. We're a lot alike and-and the zoetrope, remember? You know everything about my life-"

"You have a point," Claudia interrupted. "I've quite literally seen your most vulnerable moments and…and yet I'm still an enigma to you." She began to curl her dyed stripe around her finger. _"Okay,"_ she agreed in a whisper. "Doug, remember when I told you that I'd spent time in a psych research facility?"

"Uh, yeah," he nodded. "That's where you recognized Wertheimer's name from."

"Yeah, well, that was a lie."

"What?"

"I spent time in a psych _ward_."

Fargo didn't flinch as she stared at him; he could tell she was trying to gauge his reaction to her news. "Okay," he said calmly. "So why didn't you just tell me that from the beginning?"

"You…you're not freaked out by that? You're not going to ask why I was there to begin with?"

"I figure if you want me to know that, you'll get around to it. And no, I'm not freaked out by it."

"What if I'm a homicidal maniac with paranoid delusions?"

"Then you probably wouldn't be working in Warehouse Thirteen."

"Good point." Claudia sighed and began to visibly relax by worming her hands out from under her arms. "I was there because I was convinced my brother was alive and everyone else knew he was dead."

Fargo clicked his tongue to the back of his teeth. "But he wasn't, was he? And…I'm betting this has something to do with teleportation. With - with Rheticus' Compass?"

"How'd you know?"

"Analytical mind: your disposition, your talk of the compass, I just put two and two together; hardly a genius thing to do."

"It was a failed experiment. He got trapped interdimensionally for over nine years. Joshua was everything to me and in an instant my childhood became a nightmare because I knew he was alive and everyone thought I was just another nut job. So…I guess you could say I have a really intimate relationship with teleportation. And believe-you-me, you don't want to mess with that stuff. It nearly killed Joshua and I. If that's what this is, teleportation - Rheticus' Compass or not - people could be harmed more than just physically."

Fargo almost thought he heard the last word begin to crumble off her lips, but she held herself together. "I'm so sorry," he whispered sincerely. Without really thinking about it, he wound his arms around her and held her to his chest.

"Thanks, Doug," she whispered into his tie. "I guess even the tech support needs a little tech support every now and then."

And as he felt Claudia nestle her head beneath his chin, he hugged her a little tighter. "That's what I'm here for."


End file.
